In the Hawaiian Winter League, the three Astro farm hands are off to a hum drum start. High profile 1st round pick, Jason Castro is 2 of 8 so far with no extra base hits, two walks and one K. He has also made an error. Jordan Parraz is 2 of 11 with two walks and three K’s. Chris Hicks has pitched 3 innings so far with a 6.00 ERA. He has surrendered 3 hits and 2 runs. He has K’d 2 and walked 2.
Tip Fairchild’s home town paper does a great job of keeping up with his progress. Here they update us on his progress in returning this season from TJ surgery last year.
Some days I felt real good and some days I felt like I hadn’t thrown the ball in a year-and-a-half,” he said. “What it came down to is I’d been working out for 14, 15 months and I’d been throwing for a year straight without any breaks. My arm was pretty tired sometimes, but sometimes it was real strong, especially toward the end of the season. My last couple of outings, I was probably throwing the ball as hard as I’ve thrown it since the injury
On the mental recovery
The times that I pitched real well was when I was out there and my mind was free, and I was just letting the ball go like how I know I can,” he said. “The times that I’d struggle would be when a couple of guys would get on, and I’d try to reach down for something more and there’s not more there right now. Next year, I’ll be able to reach down and get a little bit more.
On the off season plans
Everyone else had only been throwing for six or seven months by the end of the season. I’d been throwing for over a year, Fairchild said. They want to give me plenty of time off. After that, as far as whether they want me to report early for spring training or in the middle of February, we’ll play it by ear
Farmstro put me on the this nugget from the Modesto Bee which indicates the Astros may short termers in Lancaster.
The Texas and Houston affiliates will seek to move to the Carolina League as early as 2010, which would allow Seattle to abandon High Desert for Lancaster. What would be left is an eight-team California League made up of the affiliates of the five major-league teams in California, plus Seattle, Arizona and Colorado.